Most people around me, don't see why my time spent playing with bikes that in all fairness as my other half points out I currently spend more time researching, buying and agonising over details for than in fact riding them!
I decided to help counter this with a mild bike packer build, something I can take a minimum of light one man kit with me like I used to do on foot years ago..
To use initially for overnighters from my door to explore new or less travelled parts of my lovely county of Wiltshire.
During lockdown my old man decided he was now definatly never gonna ride a bicycle again.. so gave in to my requests to sell me his old Marin.
I test rode this as a second hand purchase when it would of been three of four years old, and i was a bike mad teenager.
Weirdly I remember this well, I think because I had not long since built a better bike than I had ever had previously, and this was my dads first decent bike, and I had found it in our lbs, a trade in for a good price.
I guess we grew out of riding together fairly quick looking back... mad really as he wasn't much older than I am now when he lost the thirst for day rides! I was at this time glued to my bike every spare minute I wasn't at college, or working to pay for walking trips and bike parts!
I digress but I wanted to paint a picture that though common and some would argue not desirable this bike is something that I have a weird attachment too.. despite getting Kona obsessed long ago.
It has been very well stored and looked after, for 15 years at least wrapped in curtains in my folks loft...!
What I didn't appreciate is how low mileage it was, long forgotten under a load of dust, oil stain etc which has taken relatively little cleaning compared to my expectation its in really incredibly good condition. Perfect for my plan.
I decided to help counter this with a mild bike packer build, something I can take a minimum of light one man kit with me like I used to do on foot years ago..
To use initially for overnighters from my door to explore new or less travelled parts of my lovely county of Wiltshire.
During lockdown my old man decided he was now definatly never gonna ride a bicycle again.. so gave in to my requests to sell me his old Marin.
I test rode this as a second hand purchase when it would of been three of four years old, and i was a bike mad teenager.
Weirdly I remember this well, I think because I had not long since built a better bike than I had ever had previously, and this was my dads first decent bike, and I had found it in our lbs, a trade in for a good price.
I guess we grew out of riding together fairly quick looking back... mad really as he wasn't much older than I am now when he lost the thirst for day rides! I was at this time glued to my bike every spare minute I wasn't at college, or working to pay for walking trips and bike parts!
I digress but I wanted to paint a picture that though common and some would argue not desirable this bike is something that I have a weird attachment too.. despite getting Kona obsessed long ago.
It has been very well stored and looked after, for 15 years at least wrapped in curtains in my folks loft...!
What I didn't appreciate is how low mileage it was, long forgotten under a load of dust, oil stain etc which has taken relatively little cleaning compared to my expectation its in really incredibly good condition. Perfect for my plan.
